Pan!  r.  W?uld  'ou  be  ha 

C0»7+  Conf  Pam  12mo  #710 

#110 


EV  ANGELICAL  TRACT  SOCIETY,  |  \t_      07 

Petersburs.  Va.  I  X> <      °' 


--  COLLECTION 
WOULD  YOU  BE  HAPPY  l 


"Who  would  not  ?"  Happiness  is  the  desire  and  aim  of  all 
men.  The  desire  is  instinctive.  Every  man,  every  child  is 
conscious  of  its  existence  and  its  influence.  It  moves  every 
mind,  sways  the  emotions  of  every  heart,  governs  and  con- 
trols the  actions  of  every  life.  We  arc  formed  for  happiness. 
The  creatures  arouud  us  are  so,  and  whether  they  soar  iu  the 
•  air,  or  browse  in  the  meadow,  or  swim  in  the  lake,  the  river 
and  the  ocean — all,  in  their  several  spheres,  and  to  the  full 
measure  of  their  several  capacities,  realize  the  enjoyment  of 
which  ^hey  are  susceptible,  and  which  has  been  designed  and 
provided  for  them  by  the  beneficent  aud  bountiful  Creator. 

But  are  men  thus  happy  I  History,  experience,  conscience, 
all  concur  in  testifying  to  the  contrast  which,  in  this' respect, 
exists  betwixt  them  and  the  creatures  that  surround  them. 
-Your  conscience,  my  reader,  confirms  the  sad  and  melancholy 
truth.  You  are  not  happy.  Ifcalthy  you  may  be — you  Lave 
food  to  eat  and  raiment  to  put  on — you  are  not  a  stranger  to 
the  comfort  of  a  home,  the  sympathy  and  solace  of  friend- 
ship, the  endearments  of  domestic  life,  the  multiplied  advan- 
tages of  social  intercourse,  and  the  manifold  benefits  resulting 
from  educational  attainments.  To  you,  history  unfolds  her 
ample  page,  poetry  pours  forth  her  melodious  numbers,  sci- 
ence reveals  her  exuberant  resources,  and  art  exhibits,  iu  end- 
less variety  of  forms,  her  fascinating  mimicry  of  nature. 

Still  you  are  not  happy — no,  ,  and  if  these  sources  of  en- 
•  joyment  were  multiplied  a  thousand  fold,  and  each  a  thousand 
times  more  copious,  they  could  not  secure  to  you  that  inesti- 
mable boon.  The  eye  could  not  be  satisfied  with  seeing,  nor 
the  ear  with  hearing,  nor  the  heart  with  enjoying  all  that 
earth  can  offer  or  bestow.  Why  ?  Because  all  could  not  fill 
the  capacities,  allay  the  anxieties,  or  meet  the  anticipated 


^dhfi&i  si 

■        WOULD    YOU    BE    HAPPY; 

i     •      'A    ,  •   ,     V™ 

destiny  of  the  human  mirra.  Must  yon,  then,  my  reader, 
ought  you  to  forego  the  hope,  to  relinquish  the  pursuit  of 
happiness?  Assuredly  not.  This  were  to  resist  the  first 
law  of  nature— to  do  violence  to  all  the  instincts  of  your  con- 
stitution— to  counteract  the  purpose  and  the  will  of  God.  He 
has  made  you  to  be  happy.  He  has  provided  the  means, 
precribed  the  method,  furnished  all  the  requisite  facilities  for 
attaining  and  securing  all  the  enjoyment  which  your  most  en- 
larged capacities,  your  most  expanded  desires  can  demand. 

More  than  twenty  years  since, the  writer  became  acquainted, 
in  the  capital  of  Russia,  with  a  man  who  had  devoted  all  the 
energies  of  a  great  mind,  and  all  the  sensibilities  of  a  benev- 
olent heart,  to  the  mitigation  of  human  misery.  He  had 
been  a  merchant  in  extensive  business,  but  dissolved  his 
secular  connections,  and  gave  himself  to  the  hallowed  work 
of  personally  ministering  to  the  temporal  and  spiritual  neces- 
sities of  the  most  wretched  of  his  race.  He  sought  and  ob- 
tained the  countenance  and  confidence  of  the  emperor,  and 
under  his  auspices,  gained  access  to  the  prisons  both  of  the 
ancient  and  the  modern  capital — introduced  many  improve- 
ments into  the  discipline  of  those  receptacles  of  crime — and 
was  soon  hailed  as  the  friend  and  benefactor  of  the  worst 
outcasts  of  society. 

At  this  period,  the  writer  first  knew  him,  and  enjoyed  many 
precious  seasons  of  free,  fraternal  fellowship.  "We  took  sweet 
counsel  together,"  and  often  did  we  kneel  at  a  throne  of  mercy 
and  plead  the  promise,  "If  any  two  of  you  agree  on  earth  as 
concerning  any  thing  ye  shall  ask  of  my  Father,  it  shall  be 
done  unto  you."  lie  had  once  sought  happiness  in  the  busi- 
ness and  pleasures  of  the  world,  But  light  had  broke  in 
upon  his  mind.  He  was  convinced  of  sin.  The  earnest,  cotf- 
trite,  importunate  petition  of  the  publican  became  his  own 
— "God  be  merciful  to  me,  a  sinner  !" — and  the  prayer  was 
answered.  He  heard  and  believed  that  faithful  saying,  "that 
Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinuers."  He  found 
"peace  and  joy  in  believing,"  and  the  calm  serenity  which 
ever  sat  upon  his  noble  countenauce,  was  but  the  reflection  of 
that  "peace  of  God  which  passeth  all  understanding,"  and 
which  "ruled"  supremely  "in  his  heart."  0,  how  eloquently, 
how  energetically  would  he  expatiate  on  the  sublime  reaj- 


P  WOTTLD     VOTT     RE    U\V 


WOULD    VOU    BE    HAPPV I  3 

ities  of  the  Christian  faith!  With  what  intense  thankful- 
ness and  unfeigned  humility  would  he  adore  the  riches  of 
redeeming  and  adopting  grace  !  Had  you  seen  him,  my  reader, 
had  you  heard  him,  you  would  have  said  :  "This  is  happiness. 
How  nobly  does  religion  here  assert  and  vindicate  her  claims 
to  my  homage  and  esteem  !  What  but  her  enlightning,  sanc- 
tifying, soul-enriching  influence  could  have  given  such  vigor 
of  thought,  such  vividness  of  conception,  such  sublimity  of 
sentiment,  such  sacredness  of  feeling,  such  sweetness  of  dis- 
position, such  suavity  of  address,  such  exuberant  and  inex- 
haustible benevolence  of  heart." 

His  heart  yearned  over  the  selected  objects  of  his  philan- 
thropic efforts.  He  daily  visited  their  gloomy  cells,  read  and 
expounded  to  them  "the  word  of  God,  the  gospel  of  salva- 
vation  ;"  and  often  was  he  gladdened  by  the  sight  of  the 
penitential  tear  bursting  from  the  eye  and  falling  on  the  man- 
acles and  chains  of  the  awakened  malefactor.  It  was  during 
one  of  these  visits  of  mercy,  whilst  inhaling  the  polluted  at- 
mosphere of  a  wretched  prison  house,  that  he  was  seized  with 
a  malignant  ferer,  which  in  a  few  weeks  terminated  his  Chris- 
tian course.  He  died  as  he  lived — believing  in  Him  who  is 
"the  death  of  death,"  and  meekly  rejoicing  in  hope  of  the 
glory  of  God.  Nia  memory  will  long  nm  vhe  ;  it  is  inscribed 
indelibly  on  mauy  a  grateful  heart";  and  the  casual  visiter  of 
the  English  and  American  burial  ground  in  the  Vasili  Ostrou  < 
will  turn  aside  and  view,  with  peculiar  emotion,  the  simple 
monument  which  Imperial  gratitude  and  admiration  have 
erected  over  all  that  was  mortal  of  the  second  Howard."  ( W 
V ,  Esq.) 

But  "his  record  is  on  high" — his  name,  his  character,  his 
holy  and  heavenly  conversation  are  inseparably  blended  with 
the  recollections  and  the  spiritual  history  of  surviving  friends. 
He  had  a  brother,  for  whose  spiritual  interests,  with  those  of 
his  lady,  he  was  intensely  anxious.  This  brotfer  was  wealthy, 
and  lived  in  the  fall  enjoyment  of  all  that  wealth  could  pur- 
chase. Princes  and  nobles  were  his  frequent  guests,  and  even 
Alexander  occasionally  sat  at  his  elegant  and  hospitable  board. 
But  he  was  never  happy — never,  until,  torn  by  the  meekness 
and  gentleness  and  placid  tranquility  of  his  brother,  he  began 
to  inquire  into  the  causes  of  effects  like  these.     He  soon 


4  WOU'iD    YOU    BE    ITArPY  ■? 

found  the  explanation  which  he  sought.  Pie  heard,  believed, 
and  obeyed  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God.  He  chose  "the 
kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness,  as  his  spiritual  por- 
tion. Confiding  in  the  merits  of  Christ's  propitiation,  he 
asked  and  obtained  the  forgiveness  of  his  sins,  acceptance  with 
God,  the  spirit  of  adoption,  the  blessed  hope  of  a  glorious 
immortality.  With  all  that  ardor  and  intensity  of  zeal  which 
an  enlightened  perception  of  divine  truth  and  the  indulgence 
of  sanctified  love  only  could  produce,  he  now  sought  that  his 
beloved -partner  might  be  a  partaker  of  the  happiness  he  en- 
joyed—  the  hope  he  entertained.  She  was  accomplished, 
amiable,  warmly  attached  to  her  husband,  yet  absorbed  in  the 
gay  amusements  of  the  world,  and  scorned  the  humiliating, 
self-sacrificing  doctrine  of  the  cross.  These  brief  pages  do 
not  allow  us  to  narrate  the  changes  wrought  in  her  mind  ; 
but  she  evidently  becaruje  a  christian  indeed — meekly  sitting 
at  the  feet  of  Jesus— her  heart  rilled  with  the  love  of  God — her 
eye  beaming  with  the  ineffable  delight  of  conscious  freedom 
from  the  bondage  of  corruption,  of  assured  victory  over  the 
world,  of  habitual  communion  with  her  God  and  Saviour. 
They  have  returned  to  they  h*vn 

denghliuiiy  exemplified  Ine*  rejigion  of  Christ  in  a  life'of  ac: 
tive  piety  and  consecration  to  Him. 

▼The  writer  could  recount  many  such  illustrations  of  the 
peace-giving,  joy-inspiribg  influences  of  true  religion.  He 
has  traversed  seas  and  continents,  mingled  with  the  inhabi- 
tants of  many  a  clirjje,  held  communion  with  the  honoiable 
and  the  abject,  the  savage  and  the  sage — and  this  is  the  sum 
of  all  his  experience — that  he  alone  is  truly  happy,  who  mourns 
for  sin,  relies  on  th£* grace  and  power  of  Christ,  and,  in  the 
full  light  of  inspired  truth,  can'  "read  his  title  clear  to  man- 
sions in  the  skies." 

Reader,  the  retrospections  of  a  death-bed — of  *  judgment- 
day,  will  confirm  this  conclusion.  Anticipate  that  confirma- 
tion, and  be  wise,  that  you  may  'ifa  happy.' 


C.  Leitoi,  Printer,  .Petersburg,  Yjl. 


Hollinger  Corp. 
PH8.5 


